From InfoSecurity NY: Feds improving in cybercrime fight

The ability of federal agents to fight cybercrime has improved, despite challenges in recruiting investigators with the necessary skills, Mark Mershon, assistant director-in-charge for the New York office of the FBI, said today while addressing the InfoSecurity New York conference.

Many federal investigators considering hacking a "means to an end," not a different type of crime, Mershon said during a keynote address mostly focused on counterterrorism and counterintelligence developments.

"(Theft of personally identifiable information) is not a new standard of crime, it is a means," he said. "It requires a different skill set by investigators."

The FBI and other crime-fighting agencies are aided by organizations such as IC3 (Internet Crime Complaint Center) and other organizations, Mershon said.

Corporations are less likely to report cyberattacks, fearing the loss of sensitive corporate information in the process, he said.

"We do have an issue with underreporting of cyberattacks in the corporate world," he said. "We work very, very closely with the corporate world to hold corporate secrets very close to us."

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